Disposable cutlery may be provided as a less expensive alternative to reusable cutlery, for example, at restaurants and social gatherings where it is undesirable or cost prohibitive to clean the cutlery for reuse. However, providing disposable cutlery may present a number of potential drawbacks related to the nature in which it is dispensed.
For example, providing disposable cutlery in a loose or unpackaged fashion, such as in loose form in a receptacle containing the disposable cutlery, may result in patrons taking more cutlery than necessary, thereby increasing the cost of providing the cutlery. In addition, providing loose or unpackaged cutlery may present concerns regarding whether dispensing cutlery in such a manner is hygienic. As a result, it may be desirable to dispense disposable cutlery in a manner other than in a loose or unpackaged form.
The above-noted concerns may be addressed by dispensing disposable cutlery from dispensers configured to contain a supply of the cutlery and dispense a disposable utensil upon operation of a patron. However, the complexity and expense of many dispensers may reduce the benefit to the purchaser of the dispenser. Thus, it may be desirable to provide a simple and reliable dispenser in order to further reduce costs and increase efficiency.
In addition, it may be desirable to provide a dispenser that is capable of dispensing utensils without flipping or otherwise altering the orientation of the utensils during the dispensing process. For example, some dispensers may cause utensils to flip or rotate within the dispenser as a stack of the utensils slides within the dispenser, which may lead to jamming the dispenser, thereby potentially compromising its utility.
Additionally, it may be desirable to provide a dispenser capable of reliably dispensing utensils. Dispensers that lack a reliable dispensing mechanism may have a tendency to cause patrons to unintentionally dispense more than one utensil at a time and/or jam the dispenser such that no utensils can be dispensed until the dispenser is manually un-jammed. This may result in compromising one of the potential advantages of dispensing utensils via a dispenser—reducing costs associated with patrons taking more utensils than necessary.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a system and method for addressing one or more of the potential drawbacks discussed above.